Attan thread

[Traveller]

Haven't you seen girls holding the dawra and twirling it around while doing attanr. but in the song the girl is holding it to lessen heaviness of dowra.

Lol My family is very conservative so any type of dancing, including attan is kind of discouraged.

[maneatinglizard]

Have you seen Khattak attan? Klashinkov attan?

Is the Khattak dance (the one with swords) truly a traditional attan? It looks like a choreographed performance dance to me, unlike other attans which are much more natural and spontaneous.

[maneatinglizard]

I know that. But what does Zanzeeri mean? Some people in the comments were saying that it meant chains and that the song was talk about a woman who couldn't reach her lover. The song in general makes sense but I couldn't understand the line after "khat me zanzeeri"

Forgot to mention this before, but Zinzeer is spelled ځنځير in Pashto. So depending on your dialect you may pronounce it "dzandzeer" instead.

[salman47]

Is the Khattak dance (the one with swords) truly a traditional attan? It looks like a choreographed performance dance to me, unlike other attans which are much more natural and spontaneous.

Dunno, to me it looks like a very old atan not practiced anymore because swords became old-fashioned. You can say it is from 'Pashtun Culture Museum'.

[Farahshah]

I've always been curious about those dresses. The women in my family never wear them(I can't think of a time where I've seen anyone from my family wearing one) them and instead wear Pakistani designer clothes. It seems to me that the tradition has largely died out among many Pakistani Pashtun women(which is a shame because I think they look really elegant). Afghans still frequently wear them.You are from Pishin, right? It seems it might be more common in your area as you know a lot about this stuff.

Also what exactly is the Pashtun bridal dress? In our family women wear the red dress other Pakistanis wear.

Lol. Don't you know that Pakistani shalwar kameez is our khat partug. Pakistanis adopted itvfrom Afghans(Pashtuns). Indians wore dhoti instead of partug (shalwar) before Afghans introduced the kurta khat and shalwar.
Elderly women in our village and other villages still wear them. Also taraki/kochaan wear them as well.
Bridal dress of Pashtuns is the same same dress kochaan/taraki women wear, with more embroidery on it. Pashtuns our side don't stick to one custom. The bridal dress is a matter of preference now. So it's upto the family or bride herself whether she wants te wear Pashtun bridal dress or some Pakistani bridal dress or even a white gown on her wedding.

[Samandri]

Is the Khattak dance (the one with swords) truly a traditional attan? It looks like a choreographed performance dance to me, unlike other attans which are much more natural and spontaneous.

Khattak dance (the one with swords) is not Khattak "Attan", the latter is like traditional Attan. The other varieties of dances of Khattaks, as told to me by Khattaks themselves , are balbala, shadola,tamseeli dana, qamar balbala etc

[Samandri]

The Afghanistani girls in the western countries doing Attan in the manner of men , is amusing to watch. They should be educated that its not how Pashtun females do attan on weddings back in native areas. They cant vigorously spin and jump around like men, there has to be feminine grace to it. It should be done in the style shown in the following video ;



Hazar buz are Mohmands from Nangarhar, they are traders. But with the same style female Attan is performed in my area, much distant from Ningarhar so i am sure thats how its done throughout Pakhtunkhwa.

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

The Afghanistani girls in the western countries doing Attan in the manner of men , is amusing to watch. They should be educated that its not how Pashtun females do attan on weddings back in native areas. They cant vigorously spin and jump around like men, there has to be feminine grace to it. It should be done in the style shown in the following video ;



Hazar buz are Mohmands from Nangarhar, they are traders. But with the same style female Attan is performed in my area, much distant from Ningarhar so i am sure thats how its done throughout Pakhtunkhwa.

I’ve seen women preform attan in different styles. The wanna-be transvestite attan of Western women is as you said, a male version of the dance. Women in traditional Pashtun environment don’t dance like that.

But there are some traditional styles of attan where the women do the same moves as men do.

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

Attan use to a part of Pashtun culture and identity when Pashtuns use to be a proud martial people.

We are now subdued and humiliated and that’s why our cultural expressions are also vulgar and perverted.

The homo-fagget dancing you see now in weddings reveals how we are no longer a proud and self respecting community. We have reduced ourselves to nothing but shallow and characterless people who have no substance and no values.

[kunatawar]

The Afghanistani girls in the western countries doing Attan in the manner of men , is amusing to watch. They should be educated that its not how Pashtun females do attan on weddings back in native areas. They cant vigorously spin and jump around like men, there has to be feminine grace to it. It should be done in the style shown in the following video ;



Hazar buz are Mohmands from Nangarhar, they are traders. But with the same style female Attan is performed in my area, much distant from Ningarhar so i am sure thats how its done throughout Pakhtunkhwa.

thats a really nice attan i love it..

..and also lol at the fights in the comments....

...and the song is hilarious in a good way "kena pa datson ke che de yosam khpal watan ta" LOL!

[Elias]

The big guy with kandahari cap is very talented and every step of him match’s with the rhythm. Never seen a better performance than this one.

afghan best attan 2011 pak (lahore) - YouTube

[Insight]

Mahsud Attan In Waziristan - YouTube